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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - Affordable Housing Committee - 01/23/2018DRAFT prepared on January 31, 2018 NOTE: Date/time/place of next meeting: February 6, 2018, 10:00 a.m., City Hall, 2nd Floor Conference Room AFFORDABLE HOUSING COMMITTEE January 23, 2018, 10:00 AM, City Hall Members attending: Tom Bailey, Leslie Black-Plumeau, Sandy Dooley, Todd Rawlings, and Michael Simoneau, John Simson (Chair) Member absent: Larry Michaels Others attending: Monica Ostby, Planning Commission liaison; Coralee Holm, SoBu City Public Information Officer; Andrew Gill (O’Brien Brothers); Cathyann LaRose, SoBu City Planner; and Sharon Murray, consultant (Front Porch Community Planning & Design) Minutes by Sandy Dooley AGENDA 1. Welcome (including emergency evacuation information) 2. Review of and action on minutes of January 9, 2018, committee meeting 3. Comments and questions from the public not related to the agenda 4. Welcome Coralee Holm to discuss committee’s public education efforts 5. Welcome Andrew Gill of O’Brien Brothers to discuss his ideas for incentives and process simplification for developers of housing 6. Welcome Cathyann LaRose, City Planner, and Sharon Murray, consultant, to discuss Planning Commission’s work on PUD regulations 7. Other business 8. Adjourn 1. Welcome: John called the meeting to order at 10:00 a.m. and summarized emergency evacuation instructions. 2. Review of and action on minutes of January 9, 2018, committee meeting: Tom proposed that on page 3 of the minutes, under 8. Other Business, first paragraph, last sentence, be corrected to read “John agreed to contact Gill and invite him to our January 23rd meeting.” Tom moved and Mike seconded that the minutes for the January 9, 2018, meeting be approved as corrected. Motion passed unanimously. 3. Comments, etc.: There were no comments from the public. 4. Welcome Coralee Holm to discuss committee’s public education efforts Coralee shared that the City has a new website, www.southburlingtonvt.gov, and staff are in the process of adding attractive and user-friendly features to it so that an increased number of City residents visit and use it. The goal is to bring the whole community up to the same level of understanding of what is happening in the City and how to have a role in City activities and public processes. Discussion followed regarding how to improve what is on the website about the Affordable Housing Committee. Monica mentioned that the Planning Commission includes links to relevant documents at the bottom of its webpage. The VHFA’s (Vermont Housing Finance Agency) website was mentioned as providing a wealth of information. Monica suggested that photos of Affordable Housing located in SoBu be added to the Committee’s webpage. What are other sources residents use to get information about the City? One is the South Burlington Community Watch Facebook page, which has about 1,300 members. The Planning and Zoning Department sends an email to a large number of City residents for each Planning Commission and Development Review Board meeting (email includes link to agenda and attachments). St. Michael’s College did a survey of City residents to learn how they find out about City business and activities. The results showed that 15 percent use the City’s website for this purpose and 85 percent rely on newspapers and their “buddies.” Coralee is working on adding “gov delivery” to the City’s website, which would enhance its capability. How would the Committee go about having something added to its webpage? Send the item to Coralee. Coralee pledged to work with the committee to increase and improve its community education efforts. John asked Mike to prepare a work plan for the committee to collaborate with Coralee to enhance its effectiveness in communicating with residents via the City’s website and via other means. The plan should include specific assignments to be carried out by identified committee members. Mike accepted this assignment. 5. Welcome Andrew Gill of O’Brien Brothers to discuss his ideas for incentives and process simplification for developers of housing See separate PDF document, “Affordable Housing Committee Presentation” (January 23, 2018), which includes the ideas Gill shared with the committee. Discussion: Todd would like to see conclusion-type statements that specify the regulatory requirement and what it prevented being done. Example: But for requirement XXXXXXXX, YYYYYYY could have been done. John mentioned that requirements for affordable housing would differ from those applicable to market rate housing. Gill mentioned a small development he did (three houses off Spear Street with an existing house on Spear Street) in which the existing house is required to remain affordable for 20 years (done voluntarily). The location of this development is Chaplin Lane, which is on West side of Spear between Overlook Park and Allen Road; an old apple orchard is on opposite side of Spear Street from Chaplin Land. 6. Welcome Cathyann LaRose, City Planner, and Sharon Murray, consultant, to discuss Planning Commission’s work on PUD regulations Cathyann and Sharon attended the committee’s meeting to update members on staff and consultant work drafting new PUD (Planning Unit Development) regulations. The purpose, from City’s perspective, of existing PUD regulations has been to look at the whole of a project. Developers have tended to view them as the means to obtaining waivers of non-PUD regulations. In practice, the existing PUD regulations, due to lack of clarity and precision, result in a lot of unpredictability. A goal of the new PUD regulations is to eliminate/greatly reduce the unpredictability. Cathyann and Sharon have already met with the Natural Resources and Recreation and Parks committees and have had four or five meetings with developers. They will be meeting with the Planning Commission that evening (1/23). Cathyann and Sharon distributed a handout entitled “PUD Land Use Allocation by Type.” (Below is the link to a document that includes this handout [see page 6 of the document].) http://www.southburlingtonvt.gov/Planning/Project%20Docs/Agenda%205%20PUD%20Phase%202%20District%20Mapping.pdf The handout, which is a table, identifies seven different types of development and their focus: Conservation (rural/resource protection), Planned Agricultural (rural/agricultural enterprise), Planned Residential (suburban/residential), Campus (suburban/institutional center), Traditional Neighborhood Development (TND) (urban/park/community center), Neighborhood Commercial Development (NCD) (urban//commercial center), and Transit Oriented Development (TOD) (urban/transit center). The table specifies four “Land Use Allocations”—Residential Uses, Nonresidential Uses, Open Space, and Unallocated—and assigns minimum percentages, allowed but not required, or prohibited designations to the four land use allocations and their subcategories. The committee noted that the TND, NCD, and TOD types require minimums of 70 percent, 50 percent, and 40 percent residential development, respectively, and currently specify minimum percentages for the single/two family, attached (row, town) and multifamily residential development subcategories, as well. Goals are increased predictability and “defining vested rights.” A proposal for how the new PUD regulations will interplay with the underlying land use regulations for the City’s many zoning districts has not yet been developed (options not fully explored at this point). They anticipate having a working draft of the new regulations ready to share with the public by July 1, 2018. This meeting is not the last opportunity to comment on the draft PUD regulations. 8. Other business: John reminded committee members of the Regional Planning Commission-sponsored workshop on the “Economics of Affordable Housing Development” on January 29, 6:00 to 8:00 p.m., and encouraged them to attend. Homework (new): (Quoted from agenda item 4. above) “John asked Mike to prepare a work plan for the committee to collaborate with Coralee to enhance its effectiveness in communicating with residents via the City’s website and via other means. The plan should include specific assignments to be carried out by identified committee members. Mike accepted this assignment.” Homework (not yet reported on): ● Mike will consult with an accountant regarding what incentives the City might put in place to encourage owners of undeveloped property to sell land at a “bargain price” to private developers. ● Mike will seek Yves Bradley’s input regarding development of more housing along Shelburne Road corridor. 9. Adjourn – John moved and Tom seconded motion that the meeting be adjourned. Committee approved motion unanimously at 12:08 p.m.